Being a Massive Attack fan is an incredibly stressful and frustrating experience. When The 100th Window, their previous studio album was released in 2003, we were promised a disc of outtakes a few months later, a DVD with videos for every song and four singles. We got two singles, disc with outtakes was bundled with Collected in 2006 and the DVD, oh well.
They took their time with their fifth album, releasing a soundtrack to Danny The Dog in 2004 (quite good), Collected (random ‘hits’ collection with two amazing new songs…) in 2006 and continuing assuring us that the new album was ‘almost ready’. Tracks were apparently recorded with Mos Def, Leslie Feist, Dot Allison, Mike Patton, Jhelisa Anderson, Elizabeth Fraser, Beth Orton and Terry Callier. It was at some time rumoured that it would be a double album with CD1 by Del Naja and CD2 by Marshall. They played eight new songs during their 2007 tour. Some of them sounded great. One of them is on the actual album and is its highlight.
The EP “Splitting The Atom” which preceded the album was a bit… concerning. The video that came with it was at best eyebrow-raising — unusually for a band that always put extreme amounts of care into their visuals. The song was a bit of a departure but not exactly superbly exciting. I waited some more and now I can tell whether Heligoland was worth the wait.
It wasn’t. But then, nothing would be after seven years. And those were not seven years of hiatus, those seven years contained tours, endless recording sessions, re-recordings and so on. “Live With Me” released to promote Collected was so amazingly awesome it made me expect a masterpiece. Heligoland is not a masterpiece. But it is a solid, good album which is much more immediate than the paranoia of The 100th Window and contains more variety than I expected or even dared to hope for.
“Pray for Rain”, sung by Tunde Abepimpe, is bloody intense with its “their eyes change as they learn to see through flames/and their necks crane as they turn to pray for rain”. That intensity doesn’t really lighten up much; even the “playful” “Girl I Love You” (the song that used to be “16 Seeter” which I found a much more MA title) is dark and gloomy. “Psyche” sung by the divine Martina Topley-Bird sounds like Six Organs Of Admittance covering Philip Glass (with Martina on vocals). There is a lot to love here — “Paradise Circus” which is probably best described as post-reggae, is what I was hoping Portishead’s Three to be. “Babel” and “Atlas Air” are actual uptempo tracks! By Massive Attack!
The album is a grower — it requires two or three plays before you start distinguishing between songs — but then it DOES grow on you alright. All the drums sound live, which can be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it. There doesn’t seem to be that much synthesized stuff, which, again, can be good or bad. But generally I would say that Heligoland is an evolution rather than revolution, and it is promising evolution; if only we could hope for a follow-up in 2011, it would be a sign of amazing things to come. But I don’t even believe the promised EP of songs they did on tour will ever materialise; it’s easier not to believe them and then be positively surprised when they actually DO release something.
There is only one bum note on the album and that is “Saturday Come Slow” which mercifully is also very short. Damon Albarn used to be one of my favourite people in rock/pop music, but here his voice sounds irritating and brings the album dangerously close to the territory occupied by Radiohead, i.e. whining with post-rock background music. Those are three minutes you can skip, but they do bring the score down a bit.
One pet peeve: the iTunes LP version will feature “additional artwork” and two bonus remixes. I don’t think Massive Attack fans are ones who are excited by digital-only artwork, and I don’t intend to spend 15 euro on two additional remixes. Also if the only way to get it on vinyl will be a 60 euro box set with three vinyl LPs and a CD, I will have to pass — I love vinyl but not enough to change the sides every 10 minutes. (This was also why I never bought The 100th Window on vinyl.) I hope it isn’t too late for a rethink and a 2LP edition, unless those three LPs include remixes.
Generally, if you liked Blue Lines and nothing afterwards, you will hate this LP. If you liked Mezzanine and The 100th Window but were let down a bit by the amount of filler, you will love this LP. I am quite relieved by what I have heard, and “Girl I Love You”, “Pray For Rain” and “Psyche” are absolute Massive classics. Oh, and people who still insist on calling this music triphop need their ears checked — post-rock is the best description I’m afraid.
